Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT globalfreeway.com.au>]

| That is good Ian, because there is none. Almah is the n.f. of elem. This
| list seems to be degenerating into theology.

I beg to differ, Moshe. We are discussing the semantic range of a Hebrew 
word. I think I
can summarise the general gist of what people are saying:

(1) `Almah means "young girl"
(2) The word makes no specific reference to physical virginity
(3) According to social custom of the ancient Near East, an `almah can be 
expected to be a
physical virgin by virtue of the young girl's age. But since the word does 
not refer to
virginity, this is only a possible corollary statement.


Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)
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